“Wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.” Rom. 4:4-5
Heavenly Father, this Scripture sabotages everything we assume about the way life is “supposed to work”. We expect what’s coming to us. We demand fairness—an honest return for our labor, time, and sweat. Thankfully, the Gospel flies in the face of normalcy, conventionality, and predictability.
Thank you for not being “fair” with us. Thank you for being immeasurably generous, irrepressibly kind, and scandalously good. What we could never earn—a perfect righteousness, you’ve credited to us as a gift.
What we fully deserve—to be dealt with according to our sin, you’ll never do. What we cannot imagine—that you’d justify ungodly people (like us), you’ve done—legally, fully, and joyfully.
Because of Jesus’ once-and-for-all finished work, our sins are once-and-for-all forgiven—never to be remembered against us. Hallelujah! Father, thank you for reconciling us to yourself through Jesus, and for placing us in your now-and-forever, unwavering favor.
Make this 100—no, 1000 times more real to us than the way people disappoint us. Thank you for replacing our deserved judgment with your exuberant acceptance, unending delight, and constant serenading (Zeph. 3:14-17).
By the power of the Holy Spirit, drive the Gospel deeper and deeper into our hearts. We long for the Day when we’ll never dis-believe or under-believe the Gospel again. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ trustworthy and triumphant name.
